GOOD WEEK

Hi,

Here I am again, another p-day in the life of Hermana Woolley. I love p-day´s. I was looking forward to it all day yesterday. This week has been so, so crazy. We went over the mission goal for lessons taught and we were literally running to buses. It´s been insane, but it´s been good. So many miracles this week.

María came back! She´s the investigator who last week wanted nothing to do with the church then went to Barcelona. But this week when we went over to talk with her with the Zone Leaders (their spanish is much better than ours so we hoped they could help explain things better) she was fine.

The ZL´s helped answer her jospeh smith question and showed her a scripture that says we can´t understand everything God does, sometimes we need to move forward only on faith. because she always has lot sand lots of questions. its good that she asks them though, i take it as a sign that she is really trying to learn.It was such a relief, she should be getting baptized this next Sunday.

We met this other man who is so ready for the gospel. He is friends with a recent convert that is always going out with us. They grew up together but hadn´t seen each other for years. Our new investigator said he wanted the same change in his life that he saw in Manu´s. He´s already trying to stop smoking and he seems very earnest and humble. And it turns out his piso mate is an inactive member! He was no where in our records since he got baptized in a different part of spain, we had no idea he was there. Neither of these two men could come to church this week but I think they´ll both be there next week. Both seemed so ready to change, the less active man was asking for a copy of the BOM since he no longer has his old one. (! NEVER happens)

We met ANOTHER menosactivo this week at the home of one of other investigators. He has a baptism date set and we´ve been meeting with José pretty reguraly. He lives in a group piso and one of his piso mates came out and talked to us. Turns out he´s a member too! We promised to bring him a BOM and we´re meeting with him seperately from José. Wow!

AND THEN (the miracles just keep coming) we were refered to this Nigerian lady who said she´s wanted a BOM her whole life. So we went and met with her and her two daughters. They seemed receptive, but it was hard to tell because they are all such quiet people. They were out of our area so we handed them over to the Elders, but I´m excited to hear how things go with them. 

This week had been full of meeting people who are ready for the gospel. I know it´s because Hna Brown and I have been so dilligent in trying our hardest and we´ve had faith we were going to find people who were ready. The members here are so awesome, they help us out a lot. Most of them are converts themselves so the really appreciate what the gospel brings them. We have three men, Manu, Pablo, and Vincente that we can always count on to help us visit our men investigators. They´re so awesome, Manu wants his own missionary tag. He´s always going up to random people and talking to them about the gospel. I wish he could go on a mission of his own!

So I´ve been playing the piano in church. I´m always really grateful that no one else in the ward plays, because usually I´m sight reading so usually it doesn´t sound that great. My legs are always shaking as I walk back to my seat from the piano. But all the members are so kind and thank me for playing. And they seem to really mean it, which helps a lot. I¨m learning a lot more about the piano then I ever knew before my mission. I´ve had to amp up my sight reading skills a lot, I practice whenever we have a spare minute in the church before a meeting or english classes.

Now time for the food. I always have to talk about the food here. It´s the best part about Spain. Hna Brown and I got 2 loafs of bread for only one Euro from a bakery this week. The bread was still warm. And oh, so,so,so good. It´s the best bread I´ve ever had. Nothing compares. We also split a criossaint from the same bakery a few days earlier. I will never be able to go back to american store bought croissants. This one had honey on it or something. It was just a tad sweet and so flaky and ...yum. I wish you could all taste it. It was heaven. 

We also tried our first Tapas this week. A member was SOOOO kind and took us out to eat. Tapas are how people generally eat out here. You sit at a table outside the resturant and there are no menus, the waiter just tells you the menu. You order a couple little things. So it´s kind of like appetizers, except they´re bigger than American appetizers. We tried this traditional Barcelona dish that I have no idea what it was. Meat. And then these little sandwhiches that I´m pretty sure were lamb and fries with eggs on top. I really liked the fries, it´s like Dad´s rice and eggs thing with sauce. (Which we had a variation of for dinner on Sunday at a members house, but with red sauce. I was thinking of you Dad. It was so good and totally reminded me of home). Hna Brown showed me her favorite ice cream place for her 6 month mark. It´s helato made straight from whatever the flavor is. So actual Oreos, not oreo flavor. I got oreo and Dulce de leche. It was amazing. There are no words to describe it. 

We looked at a couple of piso´s this week and we think we found the one we´ll move in to. The office Elder is running it by President Deere today so we´ll find out in the next couple days. It´s the nicest piso I´ve ever seen, it looks like it belongs in America. We were so blessed to find it. So if we get the piso I´ll send home pictures!! And its only 2 streets from where we live now so it´ll be realatively easy to move into. It´ll take a whole p day of walking back and forth, but it´ll be worth it. 

I´ve been trying to think of a funny story to share and I´ve been having a hard time coming up with one! This week was more a miracle than a funny story. But I do have one. As anyone who´s been to Europe knows, public bathrooms don´t really exist. And when they do, they´re revolting. After a cita the other day Hna Brown and I were dying. We HAD to use a bathroom. So we run over to the Burger King that´s super close. First off, it´s the bigest BK I´ve ever seen in my life. It´s the size of a full on nice resturant, not a little fast food place. And then we realized that to use the bathroom you have to buy something. So we stood in line, both of us dancing on our toes to buy the cheapest thing we can. Off the dollar menu a little ice cream sunday. We didn´t even really care what it was, we just kind of pointed at the menu. We ended up with an ice cream sunday. On the reciept is a code that gets you in the door that leads back to the bathrooms. This door is right by the register so no one can slip in behind someone with a code or something like that. For a BK, this is some serious security for a bathroom. As expected, the place is gross. But we´re so relieved we don´t even care. I do wonder how much money that BK makes on desperate tourists, because it´s right down in the touristy part of town. We were kind of laughing at that. Not that funny, but it´s all I´ve got. 

Also, one of the members that we went to eat with this week had us  practice rolling our ´r´s. She told me I roll mine better than Hna Brown. :). I´m a bit pleased about this. 

I love you all so much! Keep reading your scriptures, it makes life so much better. Every single one of our investigators that reads regularly can testify to this. It opens the door for inspiration. I know God lives and loves us. He is so aware of us. He´s given me so many little blessings to help me through the rough days. LOVES!!

H. Woolley